Child terrorist shoots his own mother (yay for gun freedom)

"The accidental shooting of Jamie Gilt [shot by her own four-year old son who picked us the gun left by his mother on backseat of their car] is the object lesson that my absurd nation deserves. When even supposed gun safety experts cannot keep themselves safe from their own toddlers, we should take that as an unequivocal reminder that guns are inherently dangerous. They are exploding projectile machines designed specifically for killing. And that’s not bleeding-heart hyperbole – it’s the explicit reason why many people are drawn to them. Cowboy games. Vigilante justice. Power.

America does not get to claim some hypercivilised global high ground when we foster – legislatively and culturally – a system in which incidents such as Gilt’s are not just possible, but inevitable."--Lindy West

[And yes, this columnist cites the fact that in 2015, more people were shot and killed by toddlers than by terrorists--let the wailing begin about the sacred right to carry guns to defend oneself from bad people like me, a dirty liberal hippy, along with the cries that this is Fake News--Sad!]

You can read the rest of this commentary on the Guardian news-site. 

Remember that gun freedom means that every toddler must be armed with a gun.

Yes I said that (judgement and trust edition)

Earlier today, I read a post on Facebook where someone was asking about whether Buckland's Big Blue Book was legit or not. And I realized that I was judging people (and their ability to give correct Wiccan answers) based on their opinion of that book.

I mentioned this in another group. And someone questioned my right to judge people.

And I answered that I had no right, that I was just an angry blogger.

Then I tossed out this baby:

One of the nastier parts of being a human is that we have to occasionally judge people--do I trust this person with my money? Do I trust this cook not to poison me? Do I trust this person to give me decent answers about Wicca? It is an ugly thing; but if you trust everyone, sooner or later, someone has stolen your shoes.

Yes, that is right--that is my justification for judging people.

And feel free to judge me in the comment section---you know that you want to.

QoD Building successful groups

Here is a good piece of advice I saw on Facebook today:

"If you want to have a successful group, then show up. No matter if no one else does, you keep showing up. Eventually, others will show up too. Got two people? Its a successful group meeting! Got one? It's a successful meditation!"

QoD Scott Adams (Once a sock puppet always a sock puppet)

Today's quote of the day is from Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert):

"[Once] the Internet decides you are a holocaust-denying, creationist, science-hating, sexist, sock puppet, all evidence seems to support that view."

I know exactly what he is saying--some people believe that I belong to a conspiracy. I don't. The truth is that I am just a rather loud blogger that really hates certain people (who will remain nameless just because it is wrong to make them cry).

You can read the entry that I pulled this Scott Adams quote from over on his blog.

QoD The difference between Golden Dawn and Thelema

This quote is from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn yahoo news/e-zine forum (the more evil non-Griffin one).

"The Golden Dawn's approach to ritual is like that old saw everyone's dad told them growing up: The right tool for the right job.

The A.'. A.'. 's approach to ritual is less subtle. I would say it was, "OMG! BREAK STUFF!" but that would be over-simplifying it a bit."---Frater Amre

QoD Xander Harris on the importance of secrecy

Xander Harris reveals the real reason to keep a secret.

"The more people who the secret, the more it cheapens it for the rest of us."--Xander Harris.

[Yes, I am watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer; and yes, I know that no one really believes that is the real reason why we keep secrets. Nevertheless, I thought it was a cute quote.]

QoD Joseph Campbell on the goal of the Hero's Journey

"[The end of the hero's journey] is not to identify oneself with any of the figures or powers experienced. The Indian yogi, striving for release, identifies himself with the Light and never returns. But no one with a will to the service of others would permit himself such an escape. The ultimate aim of the quest must be neither release nor ecstasy for oneself, but the wisdom and power to serve others."

--Joseph Campbell

QoD Blavatsky on the responsibility of teachers and gurus

[Note: The following quote does not neccessarily reflect the opinions of Morgan Drake Eckstein or the BIORC.]

"[There] is one important fact which the student should be made acquainted. Namely, the emormous, almost limitless responsibility assumed by the teacher for the sake of the pupil. From the Gurus of the East who teach openly or secretly, down to the few Kabalists in the Western lands who undertake to teach the rudiments of the Sacred Science to their disciples--those western Hierophants being often themselves ignorant of the danger they incur--one and all of those 'Teachers' are subject to the same inviolable law. From the moment they begin really to teach, from the instant they confer any power--whether psychic, mental, or physical--on thier pupils, they take upon themselves all the sims of that pupil, in connection with the Occult Sciences, whether of omission or commission, until the moment when initiation makes the pupil a Master and responsible in his turn. There is a weird and mystic religious law, greatly reverenced and acted upon in the Greek, half-forgotten in the Roman-Catholic, and absolutely extinct in the Protestant Church. It dates from the earliest days of Christianity and has its basis in the law just stated, of which it was a symbol and an expression. This is the dogma of the absolute sacredness of the relation between the god-parents who stand sponsors for a child.* These tacitly take upon themselves all the sins of the newly baptized child--(anointed, as at the initiation, a mystery truly!)--until the day when the child becomes a responsible unit, knowing good and evil. Thus it is clear why the 'Teachers' are so reticent, and why 'Chelas' are required to serve a seven year probation to prove their fitness, and develop the qualities necessary to the security of both Master and pupil."

---H. P. Blavatsky, Practical Occultism (Important to Students)

*"So holy is the connection thus formed deemed in the Greek Church, that a marriage between god-parents of the same child is regarded as the worst kind of incest, is considered illegal, and is dissolved by law; and that absolute prohibition extends even to the children of one of the sponsors as regards to those of the other."

QoD Our traditions are now owned by Christian and New Agers

Here is a quote taken from a blog post talking about why polytheism is vital to paganism:

Right now Goddess-worship, tarot, astrology, reiki, magic, ritual, meditation and all the things we practice are being reclaimed and invigorated. But not by us. By bland New Age philosophers and by Progressive Christians. In the larger picture, they own these things. They are the face of all our practices and theology. Ecological spirituality, shadow work, energetic healing, shamanic journeying and the power of intention are all things they own. For every small-town priestess teaching her handful of students about the power of intention there are millions watching Oprah express the same concepts and principles on television. They are the ones buying the bulk of the incense and tarot decks and crystals and attending workshops. They are the ones buying the books by Deepak Chopra on using Merlin as a guide to self-transformation.

They own it all. Everything. There is nothing you can name that they do not own. Even Voudou is practiced by Catholics using the names of saints instead of orishas. Even those things that have originated within our communities are now owned by them. The Divine Feminine is now a liberal Christian concept. Christian theology and atheism have taken over the Greek philosophers. They own it all.

QoD Is daily (clergical) practice neccessary?

Here is a taste of a post from the blog Aedicula Antinoi: A Small Shrine of Antinous that kicks around the idea that for many modern pagans that we do not need to engage in daily duties that would normally be the job of the full-time clergy of ancient times (please note that this idea may not actually apply to ceremonial magicians and apprentice witches, but I still encourage you to go read the rest of the post):

The notion in many sorts of paganism that everyone is “their own clergy” and thus has clergy status, and therefore must in a variety of ways perform as if they are clergy, is rather erroneous in my view. As much as certain teachers and practitioners would suggest all of the modern pagan/polytheist population have some sort of daily practice (which usually looks like “daily meditation” in most forms I’ve seen it), I can’t really support that necessity from a general viewpoint, either as a reconstructionist or as a general spiritual practitioner who has many strong deity devotions, including Antinous. What I do and what I am is not to be taken as “an example” of what all people who are devoted to Antinous should be doing, any more than my current unemployment or being without romantic relationships should be taken as “required” for anyone who is devoted to Antinous.

See what I did there? Taking any person’s style of life as “exemplary,” even in one area of their life like spiritual practice, is a very big mistake. Every relationship with every deity, hero, or other divine being requires individualized, particularized, and highly unique negotiation, offers and counter-offers, efforts and counter-efforts, and all sorts of reciprocity as well as contractuality coming into the picture on the part of the gods/heroes/divine beings and the humans who are devoted to them.

Qod Freemasonry as a fraud and money machine

The following is a biased conclusion drawn from a treasury report of the Keystone Lodge (no. 639) presented in 1870 and used in Ronayne's Hand-Book of Freemasonry (1917) to justify his printing of the Freemasonry rituals. [Please bear in mind that this quote is a set-up for the next post in my secrecy series, and should not be viewed as my opinion of Freemasonry.]

[What becomes of all the Masonic money?]

With regard to this official document [a treasury report], it will be sufficient to remark that it indelibly stamps every single transaction in the organization of Keystone Lodge, No. 639, as a wilful and deliberate steal, from beginning to end. First, every candidate was defrauded in the sum of $64.25, by being charged $65, in all for his three degrees, when the officers and members of that Lodge knew, just as well as they did their own names, that those very same degrees,--word for word, and in better form,--could be purchased of any regular book-seller in the country for 75 cents at most.

Secondly, the money thus fraudulently obtained from "the poor, blind candidate," was in its turn stolen by Moses Shields, their Worshipful Master, and by others, thus very forcibly proving the truth of that old adage--"Ill got, ill gone."

Thirdly, the Grand Lodge of Illinois, for the sum of $75, gave them permission to open their Masonic confidence shop and to sell Masonic so-called secrets to any white man of mature age, who might be foolish enourgh to buy them, thus encouraging and perpetuating the fraud by issuing its charter or warrant, empowering them to work.

In this manner, Freemason Lodges are organized and the money fliched from the poor, selfish, deluded dupes who join them, is disposed of. Every Masonic Lodge in the world is a fraud; the sale of its sham degrees is but obtaining money under false pretenses; and what is worse, the Masons themselves know it. This being the case, then, and desiring to do what I can towards exposing the swindle and the outrageous humbug of these dark gangs of conspiracy, I would earnestly call the reader's attention to [Ronayne's Hand-Book of Freemasonry], as containing the literally correct ritual and work of Freemasonry.

Take it outside

There are days that I think that the following quote is a good summary of the interaction between various Golden Dawn students and groups.

"What's the point of havin' a rapier wit if I can't use it to stab people?"--- Jeph Jacques.

Yes, yes---I know that I am wrong. No one is being stabbed; and if they are stabbed, then they deserved to be stabbed because their wit and knowledge wasn't great enourgh to defend themselves. And if you say that something is not part of a flame war, then you are innocent of flaming even as your breath reeks of gasoline.

Let's just be honest for a second.

Every Golden Dawn leader thinks that they are right. And every Golden Dawn follower believes that their leader is right clear up to the second that they decide that they are wrong.

And everyone wants the most (if not all) the students of the tradition to follow them. It is all part of the business of having an ego.

And the way you get the most followers, and prove that your knowledge is the greater, is by stabbing others with your wit.

But there are some of us who do not want to watch this.

So just do us all a favor: There is an alley over there---use it, so the rest of us don't have to see you stab the other person.

[And if you are offended by this commentary, then ask yourself why you think that I am talking about you.]

Things that I am reading today QoD edition

Here are three quotes from things that I have been reading on the web today.

First up is Rufus Opus, who is talking about his unwillingness to be sold a bill of goods in his post Idiocy and the Secret Papers.

"If you want to play those reindeer games, by all means feel free to do so. But don't try to tell me your personal fantasies are really the really real truth. There are no secret documents that weren't developed in the last century, there is no secret Order of initiates from Atlantis, there is no hidden group of ascending masters who will be able to teach you anything you can't find on the internet for free (www.esotericarchives.com, www.hermetic.com) or figure out on your own if you try hard and ask the right spirits for help."

Yes, Rufus makes people upset---all the time. I think that why I like him so much. And here is a hint, if he gets you upset, ask yourself "Why?! Is he telling the truth?"

Second up is Jenn from A Broom and the Moon, talking about Spiritual Menstruation.

"Bottom line, it is immature for any man on this planet not to be comfortable with the fact that women have periods. A woman's body is quite possibly the most beautiful thing on this Earth. Love your woman, her body, and her bodies cycles."

To this day, I am amazed at the discomfort displayed by most men when it comes to the functions of the female body, even men who should know better. Hint---the taboos were installed by the exoteric "no magic allowed" religions.

And finally, Chris Brennan is writing about his concerns about astrologers jumping on the 2012 bandwagon in his article Do Not Associate Astrology With 2012.

"Virtually all claims by astrologers about the significance of 2012 have been made as a result of a preconceived notions that something important is supposed to happen that year because that is what the New Age writers have told people that the Mayans predicted. So most contemporary predictions about 2012 by astrologers are attempts to justify why 2012 could be important from the perspective of contemporary astrological theory, trying to account for the preconceived notion rather than identifying something that stands out as astrologically significant in its own right."

Personally, I extend this concern to all the esoteric sciences, not just astrology. Of course, my regular readers have read my opinion about the 2012 Doomsday. Basically, I think it is not going to happen.

So there you have it---a quick peek into what I have been reading today.

QoD Ronald Hutton

Actually, this should be quotes of the day, but it would just be confusing to have a label like that. Yes, I am guilty of reading the latest piece by Ronald Hutton, Writing the History of Witchcraft: A Personal View, that was just published in the latest issue of The Pomegrante. Three months ago, I wouldn't have been bothered to read this, being more of the "What shiny pieces does your tradition have that are not bolted down properly" type of magical worker than the type of pagan/Wiccan that is concerned about what academic historians say about my religion and other interests. Heck, three months ago, I didn't even know who Hutton was. But hey, everyone else is going to be talking about this in the morning, so I better read the article.

For those who just want my conclusion on whether Ronald Hutton should be trusted, just skip to the end, for I discovered that I was biased and not in the way that I am supposed to be as a Golden Dawn authority. I am going to have to turn in my union card---the (human) Third Order is so going to expel me from the tradition for this bias--the real Secret Chiefs (the cats) will agree, just because they are tired of members showing up at the house and disturbing their naps.

Pages numbers are the same as the journal---remember I use MLA style (###) on my blog because footnoting is such a pain to do on blogger.

"[The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Pagan Witchcraft] was not a general history of Paganism, ancient or modern, in Britain or anywhere else. It did not treat of the history of witchcraft outside Britain, except in as much as that affected British developments. It was certainly not intended to attack the foundational claims of Wicca, because in Britain confidence in those claims had already collapsed" (240).

By the time, I joined the Wiccan community in the early 1980s, the foundational story/myth was pretty much ignored, at least in the circles that I traveled in. Occasionally, I still run into someone that believes that the witch-hunts actually was being conducted to purge the remains of a pagan religion---I tend to humor them. Also on occasion, I run into someone that claims to be fam-trad---I really humor them---they tend to be teenagers! Of course, this is America; everyone in America is delusional, more or less. As for the European community, may I remind you that I am not in Europe and that American Wicca comes from Britian, or at least the branch I belong to does. If things are different in Europe, fine and well, but my membership is American---British descent.

"By characterizing witchcraft as a good Pagan religion, persecuted by Christianity, it made nonsense of the fact that ancient European Pagans had tried and executed people, sometimes on a huge scale, for the same crimes (esstentially, attempting to harm others by magical means) as those alleged against early modern witches, only lacking the element of Satanism" (241).

Yeah, that was a bad PR move.

"Triumph was therefore written not to demolish a belief system but to fill a vacuum created by the collapse of one. Both in professional terms and those of my standing among Pagans, it would have been far better for me had I been able to rescue the old orthodoxy instead. To prove the existence of an early modern Pagan witch religion, after all, would have been a sensational coup among historians, while to prove its endurance to the present day would have endeared me to all modern Pagan witches. I simply found the task impossible, and indeed it became more so as my research for the book went on" (241).

I feel like taking him at his word about the purpose of his book. And as a fellow scholar (humor me), I so understand the Holy Grail of academic research---every scholar wishes to pull off a coup.

"[Modern Paganism's] goddess and god were not the deities of a few cranks, drawing on long-distant ancient images, but deity-forms who had manifested themselves to some of the greatest of all British poest, novelists, and scholars. Its beliefs and rites reflected some of the deepest needs of the modern British soul, and it was not a phemomenon marginal to society in general but drew on impulses which were central to it" (241).

Ok, I will admit to being stupid. I see nothing wrong with this statement. Someone please explain why I am supposed to be upset with this man and his work.

"[My] work re-evaluated generally beloved writers such as John Keats, Percy Shelley, Robert Browning, Algernon Swinburne, Charlotte Bronte, Rider Haggard, Kenneth Grahame, and D. H. Lawrence, among many others, and entitled Pagans today legitimately to claim them as forebears" (242).

The Literature major, that is me, just gave this girlish rock star sighting scream. Hutton is giving my goal as a History/Literature double major a boost, some evidence to argue with the heads of my programs that my eventual academic goal is a real academic goal. Again, I really need someone to explain to me why I am supposed to hate this man.

On that note, I am going to hit "publish post" and leave it to those people who are smarter than I am and less invested in this issue to decide if the rest of us should listen to the man. I am the wrong person to do so; after all, I am the man (without knowing of Hutton) who walked into college planning on tracing symbols that informed modern occult thought though literary references from ancient times to the present. My planned focus as a scholar says that I should be defending the man's research. Yes, I will admit that I am biased in this case.

Cue the people who are smarter and less invested than I am to weigh if Ronald Hutton needs to be burned for his heresy.

QoD Rufus on Demonic Plumbing

Rufus just wrote a pro-home ownership post on his blog that included the following gem:

"Jesus, did you know that plumbers just basically go into a house and plumb it however the fuck they want? As long as the water goes down the right hole, it's pretty much legal. I'm pretty sure the people who plumbed this house over the last 60 years were dabblers in the Necronomicon. If I ran all the faucets and flushed all the toilets at the same time, Marduk would appear in the living room, no lie."

I thought that the plumber who did my house was bad (the man managed to get fool-proof parts in completely backwards)---and don't get me started about the other work he did (he was a plumber, supposely)---but I agree with Rufus that I would rahter own a house than be a renter.

QoD Ananael Qaa on the Value of Arguing over Survival of Pagan Systems

The following quote is from Ananael Qaa, who does the Augoeides blog (which I read regularly because he finds news items that I completely miss otherwise); Ananael was commenting on a re-route post by VVF-Otherwordly Sorcery pointing out the current blog posts by Caroline Tully and David Griffin regarding the work of Professor Ronald Hutton.

"Aside from its academic value [arguing over the survival of pagan traditions] is such a silly subject. It's worthwhile to try and work out what the real history is, but why this would have any effect on someone's magical or spiritual practices is completely beyond me.

"From a technical standpoint the modernity of a system is a feature, not a bug. Horsedrawn carriages have a noble and ancient history in our civilization, but if you own a modern car you're going to beat your Amish neighbor into town every time."

QoD Rufus Opus on trying to duplicate the old ways of magic

The "unknown unknowns" leave us unable to really do the magic the way they were doing it back then, if it was ever done that way at all. We're products of a different culture, living in a different time. Agrippa would have had an ipad, you know it. And spreadsheets.

     ----Rufus Opus

QoD Stephanie Reisner on being lucky about where she lives

I am lucky to live in a part of the world where we place the highest monetary value on blind faith, youth, beauty, unremarkable ability (rather than real talent), athletic ability and stupidity. It’s not always easy being the middle-aged, married smart girl, but it certainly beats being murdered, raped, suicide bombed, having to wear a ghost costume 24/7, having no rights, being in a disaster zone, being too ignorant to function, etc…


      ----Stephanie Reisner

QoD Armand Barbault on alchemy

Currently reading Armand Barbault's alchemy book, "Gold of a Thousand Mornings" (1975) ["L'or du Millieme Matin" (1969)]. Started to notice that some of his section headings and "takeaways" could be read as a short alchemy text all on their own. ("Takeaways" for the non-journalist crowd are these sentences you see enclosed in boxes to highlight the important stuff from magazine and newspaper articles.)

The Dawn of the Magicians begins at daybreak on a Spring morning.

The twelve Signs of the Zodiac hold the secret of Nature.

Astrology is only one step from Alchemy, Alchemy only one step from Medicine.

The Adept who reveals all he knows about the First Matter is not betraying any trust, for the means by which it is obtained remain very personal, linked to nature and to the Alchemist's own individual preparation.

A repeated series of operations should bring the Matter to the state of Leaven, the state conductive to the "opening" of gold.

Our preparation is produced by following the philosophic process which deal with the "first part" of the Great Work as described in traditional alchemy.

The Tradition represents the great work as consisting of Three Parts.

[Quoting from The Twelve Keys of Philosophy] The pure is freed from the impure...Corruption of one and generation of the other...All flesh born of the earth shall be destroyed anew and shall be returned to the earth. In as much as previously it was earth, new generation of the salt of the earth is produced by the breadth of celestial life.

[Another quote from The Twelve Keys of Philosophy] A salt is most effectively extracted by fire if the body in question has been previously been brought to putrefaction...the true, natural tartar to be dissolved is hidden in the ash. When this tartar has been dissolved, the mighty lock to the King's apartment may be unfastened.

The Emerald Tablet and the Mutus Liber provide all the essential alchemical knowledge in symbolic form.

All the evidence points to the conclusion that the liquor of gold----which according to all normal systems of physical and chemical analysis contains no gold----constitutes a new state of matter.

In addition to vegetabilised gold, the alchemist can, within the framework of first-degree medicine, prepare tinctures of such metals as silver, antimony, copper and tin.

The three basic Tinctures are those of Gold, Silver and Antimony.

The way of the second order is even more mysterious. The alchemist may embark on it once he possesses First Matter which has reached the first degree of perfection.

QoD Raymond Abellio makes a wish

It is high time that activities such as astrology and alchemy, which are wrongly termed 'occult', provoked some reaction other than the customary blind acceptance or sarcasm. I feel it is necessary to point out to those deep thinkers who have shed all their illusions without having gained anything else in the process, that to denounce the charlatanism of certain 'seers ' or the naive attitude of 'believers' is not a sufficient investigation of these secular disciplines. One wishes that orthodox scholars would bring to bear judgements based on practical knowledge and would at the very least agree to learn the rules of the game. Instead , they oppose on principle arts of which they have no knowledge and about which they fabricate quite fantastic ideas.

   ---Raymond Abellio